


to build and to break

by zealousy



Series: godspeed my boy [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Poetry, Post Batman Inc 8, godspeed my boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-26
Updated: 2013-03-26
Packaged: 2017-12-06 14:03:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/736496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zealousy/pseuds/zealousy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce will never see Damian grow up to defy his own expectations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to build and to break

**Author's Note:**

> {It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men}  
> Frederick Douglass

You sometimes think his thoughts

he can imagine all the plausible dangers hidden 

in this forsaken city's night

in the evening of his soul

except

that the grand plans had been dealt

long before he knew how to topple empires

with the flick of his wrist

with a flash of steel

except

the architecture of your soul is all wrong

too much shadow for the robins to sing in

and he built himself your way

no light, no light for any song

he didn't know that

 

yet

 

he just wanted skyscrapers

and towers to conquer the skies he was promised to

(and dungeons and labyrinths to cage all his demons)

you wanted dismantle the heights he had reached

because what if 

he had incurred the wrath of the gods

become a child to be struck down 

to his very bones

to the foundations of his being

 

what would have been left of him?

 

maybe you were wrong

you are calloused from building and breaking

for the altar on which you laid your life upon

 

night after night

 

he was still learning

piecing together a vision of himself in the world

reconstructing the word of his gods

to a belief stronger steel 

so that his heart could carry 

the cities he would build

and his bones could be holy enough for the crown

with he would rule with his own two hands

 

maybe when the lightning struck

everything he was

he is 

he would have been

was illuminated

 

maybe the robins will sing

in the hallowed halls of his soul

 

 


End file.
